The Prem: Football: I'm not a nice loser

KEVIN KEEGAN is promising that his Manchester City side will play their way out of trouble the only way they know how - by attacking.

The Blues have lost three games already this season and many are wondering if they can afford to continue being so cavalier.

Keegan, who take on Blackburn at Maine Road today, does not believe his side have suffered because of the formation they are playing, but rather because they are being careless in possession.

City ran Arsenal close at Highbury last Tuesday, before going down 2-1 and Keegan believes there were a lot of positives from that performance. The Maine Road boss feels that asking his side to change their style of play would mean going back to the drawing board and that's an option he's not prepared to take.

Instead, Keegan insists that City will keep on attacking, until they get it right. He said: "It is a difficult one because you have to be either committed to playing football or change the way you play completely.

"I still have a lot of faith that our best players can produce it in this division. "We didn't run Arsenal as close as I would have liked to last week, because we kept giving the ball away. "But the pleasing thing is that we went out to play football and we did. The frustration is that we never got to the heights we are capable of.

"What we did was just goodenough to give them a game, but not good enough to beat them.

"We did very well against them without ever reaching our best, so that is encouraging." Keegan is desperate to get away from his reputationas a coach who produces sides that win plenty of friends but no silverware.

His Newcastle side were famously attack minded, but were undone in the end by their inability to kill off important games.He admits his City side will need to become more ruthless if they are to start climbing the table and insists he would hate itif his team become everybody's favourite losers.

He said: "Just having people say nice things about you is not enough, I want us to give more problems to teams like Arsenal. "We probably need to be more ruthless, but we won't be playing sides like Arsenal every week.

"The last thing in the world that we want is people saying nice things about us and then packing us away. "Years ago, when I played, people used to say the same thing about West Ham, that they played great football. But then you would look at the scores and see 'Liverpool 4 West Ham 1'."

Darren Huckerby is a doubt for today's game and it is likely Shaun Goater will be brought in to replace him. Niclas Jensen could also be set for the axe after a less than impressive display at Highbury, with Danny Tiatto ready to come in.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Anelka is shaping up on his free kicks by taking lessons from the master - Stuart Pearce. Pearce forged a reputation during his career as one of the finest deadball specialists in the game.

The French hitman reckons his shot is not all it could be and it is one of the aspects of his play he wants to improve. Anelka has been staying behind after training to practice how best to blast home a free kick.

Pearce has made it clear he finds the former Real Madrid and Paris St Germain hitman one of the most exciting prospects he has ever worked with. And he is now passing on tips to the 23- year-old with the two men putting in plenty of extra hours at the training ground. Anelka said: "I used to stay behind after training when I played at Real Madrid to try and learn the skills required.

"It was important to work on aspects of my game that were not as good as they might have been and Stuart has been a huge help at City "Now I am working on my free-kicks. That is why I stay longer with Stuart, who is very good.

" Pearce believes Anelka has found his feet as a City player and is on the road to being a club legend. He said: "There have been no problems with Nicolas, he has been in great form in training and has settled in well.

"I played against him in 1999 when England played France at Wembley and I saw how good he was then. "But his game is a lot more complete now. I think he will add a lot to this club."

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